We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lydia Abbott. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lydia below.
Lydia, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Success, to me, comes down to relentless curiosity, radical ownership, and resilience. You have to be hungry to learn, willing to take full responsibility for outcomes—good or bad—and able to bounce back quickly when things go sideways. But more than anything, success is about saying yes more than no—especially in the early days. It’s about trying things before you’re ready, failing fast, learning faster, and constantly adapting.
One of the most defining moments in my journey was when I agreed to take on a client project that, on paper, I probably wasn’t “qualified” for. It was outside my comfort zone, a huge scope, and a tight timeline. But I said yes, figured it out as I went, and over-delivered. That one risk led to multiple referrals and ultimately snowballed into what became Workflow Magic. If I had waited until I felt ready, I’d still be waiting.
Success isn’t about perfection—it’s about momentum. Say yes, stay curious, and don’t be afraid to build the plane while flying it.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m Lydia Abbott, the founder and CEO of Workflow Magic, a platinum monday.com partner and consulting firm. We help companies build custom workflows, automations, and integrations that streamline operations, eliminate manual work, and improve team collaboration. Our work is all about creating scalable systems that actually work for the way businesses runs.
My background is actually in healthcare, primarily in project management and operations. I didn’t start out in tech—but I’ve always been process-driven and obsessed with finding smarter ways to work. At one of my previous roles, I led a company-wide rollout of monday.com to over 200 employees and saved the business over $650K in the first year by automating workflows and optimizing operations. That experience opened my eyes to the power of no-code tools and sparked the idea for Workflow Magic. Saying “yes” to every challenge early in my career helped shape me into the kind of person who builds the solution instead of waiting for someone else to do it.
What started as a solo consulting gig quickly grew into a full-blown company. Today, we have an incredible team of certified monday.com experts, automation wizards, and process nerds who’ve helped over 600 companies clean up their operations and find clarity in the chaos. We offer everything from CRM builds and project management systems to advanced integrations with tools like QuickBooks, Salesforce, Jira, and beyond.
What sets us apart is that we don’t just “build boards.” We go deep into understanding how your business actually works, where the bottlenecks are, and what’s stopping you from scaling. Then we create a solution that’s easy for your team to adopt and evolve with you. Our superpower is simplicity—we take complex workflows and make them elegant, automated, and intuitive.
What I’m most proud of is the impact we’ve had on real businesses. Like helping a healthcare client cut their invoicing process from 2.5 days a week to under an hour, or helping a global team go from ten different disconnected tools to one streamlined platform. We’re not just building software—we’re giving people their time back.
If there’s one thing I want people to know about me and Workflow Magic, it’s that we’re in this for the long haul. We don’t do cookie-cutter solutions or one-and-done projects. We believe in building partnerships, not just workflows. We grow when our clients grow—and that’s the kind of business I’m proud to lead.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
Yes! Workflow Magic actually started as a side hustle. At the time, I was working full-time in healthcare operations, and I had just rolled out monday.com across our entire organization. After seeing the results—$650K+ in savings, massive time savings, and happier teams—I started helping other companies do the same in my spare time. Within the first week, I had three paying clients and quickly realized the demand was there. It snowballed fast.
I’d work nights and weekends building out workflows, automations, and custom dashboards. The more I built, the more referrals came in, and soon I was turning away work because I simply didn’t have the hours. Eventually, I had to make a decision—keep juggling both or go all in. I chose to leap—and never looked back.
Some key milestones along the way: landing my first enterprise client, hitting 100 clients, becoming a platinum monday.com partner, being awarded Best Professional Services Partner by monday.com, and growing a team of specialists who are just as obsessed with process as I am. One of the biggest turning points was getting recognized by monday.com directly and being invited to work on strategic client accounts—that gave us momentum and credibility, and helped us scale quickly.
Today, Workflow Magic is my full-time focus and a growing team effort. What started with a laptop and a few late-night projects has turned into a company that’s helped over 600 businesses run better.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Managing a team and maintaining high morale starts with trust, transparency, and a shared sense of purpose. I’ve learned that people don’t just want to be managed—they want to be seen, supported, and challenged. It’s important to set clear expectations, celebrate wins (big or small), and create a culture where feedback flows both ways.
One of the things that’s worked really well for us at Workflow Magic is recognizing individual contributions in real time. We give shoutouts in Slack when someone gets a 5-star review or crushes a tough project, and we make space for fun—whether it’s sending funny awards at the end of the year or just checking in personally. People feel valued when they know their work matters and that you’re paying attention.
I also think morale comes from clarity. If people know where the business is going, how their role contributes, and what success looks like—it creates momentum. And momentum breeds morale. The best teams I’ve led weren’t just talented—they were aligned, empowered, and appreciated.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.workflowmagic.co
- Instagram: workflowmagic
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/workflow-magic/
- Soundcloud: https://www.youtube.com/@workflowmagic
